Top grub...without the guilt! Quinoa salad

From pies to pizzas and pork skewers - robust but low-fat dishes from the Hairy Bikers in our second extract from their brilliant new cookbook

This salad helps rid quinoa of its boring reputation

212 calories per portion

We’ve been quite bossy about how to put this salad together so you can enjoy it at its fabulous best. If you just mix it all up it will look messy – although it will still be good to eat. If your asparagus is really fresh, you can leave it raw for some crunch.

Alternatively, you can blanch it briefly or put it on a hot griddle for a few moments for some decorative charring.

Serves 4

75g (2¾oz) quinoa, washed and drained

A pinch of salt

8 asparagus spears

2 oranges

100g (3½oz) bag of watercress and spinach leaves (or similar)

1 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into small chunks

4 spring onions, cut into rounds

Leaves from a small bunch of mint

For the dressing

1tbsp olive oil

Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lime

1tbsp soy sauce

½tsp caster sugar

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 hot red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Flaked sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

To cook the quinoa, tip it into a saucepan with double the volume of water (150ml/5fl oz). Add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil, then cover and turn down the heat. Simmer the quinoa gently until all of the water has been absorbed – this should take about 15 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave the quinoa to cool.

Bend each asparagus spear until it snaps and discard the woody end. If you’re serving the asparagus raw, simply slice the spears on the diagonal, as thinly as you can, leaving the tips whole. If you prefer your asparagus cooked, blanch or griddle the spears until tender and then slice them thinly.

Peel the oranges and divide them into segments. Remove and discard any excess pith where possible – do this over the bowl you intend making the salad dressing in, so that you catch any juice. Set the segments aside and add the rest of the dressing ingredients to the bowl containing the juice and whisk them all together.

Wash the salad leaves and arrange them on a platter or individual salad plates. Sprinkle over most of the quinoa and then spoon over some of the dressing. Add the asparagus spears, chopped avocado, orange segments, spring onions and mint leaves. Sprinkle over the rest of the quinoa and pour over the remaining dressing. Toss the salad very lightly just before serving.